T-Mac gets all clear
MELBOURNE forward Tom McDonald has been cleared of serious damage to his injured eye and may play against Hawthorn next Sunday.
McDonald copped a poke in his eye early in the win over the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday night and spent the rest of the match on the bench wearing a patch.
He was taken to hospital as a precaution and found to have a scratched eyeball.
It’s understood the eye area remains quite bruised and closed over and will be monitored during the week.
REBECCA WILLIAMS
IZAK Rankine’s stunning three-goal AFL debut on Saturday night is being described as one of the best by greats of the game.
The 2018 No. 3 draft pick picked up 12 disposals, two clearances and kicked 3.3 in Gold Coast’s 17-point loss to Melbourne.
On Fox Footy, triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown described Rankine’s performance as “exciting a debut as I’ve ever seen”, while Demons champion Garry Lyon said the 20-year-old had “played like a 300-gamer”.
Kane Cornes, on the AFL’s
Izak Rankine (centre).
The Round So Far said Rankine had “shades of Wanganeen” and AFL talent ambassador Kevin Sheehan tweeted the South Australian would likely join No. 1 draft pick of 2018 Sam Walsh as a future AFL star.
But none of this has surprised South Australia’s
Under-18 coach Tony Bamford, who coached Rankine at three national championships.
“His lateral movement we saw, the X-factor he had, we saw all that every week when he was Under-18, even Under-17 to be honest,” Bamford said.
Rankine was unable to debut in 2019 (alongside fellow South Australian and the Suns’ 2018 No. 2 pick Jack Lukosius) because of persistent hamstring and hip injuries, and Bamford said that would have been tough for the youngster.
“He’s so driven and so internally competitive, and he hates missing football, so that would have been a real test for him off-field,” he said. “It would have been a relief for him when he got out there and it’s almost like he’s been able to express himself in a game of football again.”
Rankine debuted as a 16year-old in the SANFL for West Adelaide in 2016, and then Bloods coach Mark Mickan described his AFL debut as “mercurial”.
“He’s got that in him to produce that sort of football … he’ll be one people will come to watch, not just because of what he did yesterday, but the way he plays.
“He takes the game on and takes the opposition on, and he’s very exciting to watch,” Mickan said.